News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch confirmed the launch at his keynote address at the 2007 McGraw-Hill Media Summit on February 8, 2007. Murdoch had publicly stated that if News Corporation's purchase of The Wall Street Journal went through and if it were legally possible, he would have rechristened the channel with a name that has "Journal" in it.[2] However, on July 11, 2007, News Corporation announced that the new channel would be called Fox Business Network (FBN).[3] This name Fox Business Network was chosen over Fox Business Channel due to the pre-existing (though seldom used) legal abbreviation of "FBC" for the then-News Corporation-owned broadcast network Fox Broadcasting Company.[4]

The channel launched on October 15, 2007.[5] The network is placed on channel 43 in the New York City market, which is home to the NYSE, NASDAQ and S&P 500 stock exchanges. It is paired with sister network Fox News Channel, which moved to channel 44 (CNBC is carried on channel 15 on Time Warner Cable's New York City area systems).[6] FBN received carriage on Cablevision channel 106, only available via subscription to its IO Digital Cable package. According to an article in Multichannel News, NBC Universal paid up to "several million dollars" in order to ensure that CNBC and Fox Business would be separated on the dial, and in order to retain CNBC's "premium" channel slot.[7] However, it is important to note that FBN is carried on Time Warner Cable only on its analog service in New York City; in other markets, the channel's carriage is limited to digital cable.[8] Verizon's FiOS TV also carries the network on its premier lineup (SD channel 117 and HD channel 617). Dish Network began carrying FBN on channel 206 on February 2, 2009. FBN also received carriage on DirecTV channel 359.

On May 12, 2008, Fox Business Network revamped its daytime lineup, which included the debut of two new programs, Countdown to the Closing Bell and Fox Business Bulls & Bears. On April 20, 2009, Money for Breakfast, The Opening Bell on Fox Business (both hosted by Alexis Glick), The Noon Show with Tom Sullivan and Cheryl Casone, Countdown to the Closing Bell, Fox Business Bulls & Bears, and Cavuto all moved to the network's new Studio G set. All six of those shows share the same set in Studio G, which was unveiled on Money for Breakfast the same day.

On September 17, 2012, FBN switched to a letterboxed format on its standard definition feed; simultaneously, all programs began being shown on its HD feed in a full 16:9 picture format, resulting in the removal of the right-side content wing. The network also debuted new graphics on the same day.

The high definition simulcast of Fox Business Network is broadcast in the 720p resolution format. Programming shown on this feed was originally produced in high-definition, but was cropped to a 4:3 image and pushed to the left side of the screen, with the extra room used for additional content, such as statistics and charts, and a wider ticker with more room; the information sidebar was named "The Fox HD Wing" (competitor channel CNBC HD used the enhanced HD format until October 13, 2014, when it was discontinued altogether).

The sidebar graphic was dropped as a result of the network's switch to a 16:9letterbox format on September 17, 2012, ending the enhanced HD format altogether. The enhanced ticker and headlines, which were previously seen in the old sidebar graphic, were moved to the lower-third of the screen. Both the SD and HD feeds now use the same exact 16:9 letterbox format, just like its other 21st Century Fox-owned sister networks.

Before the network premiered, few specific facts were made public as to the type of programming approach Fox Business would be taking. However, some details emerged as to how it would differentiate itself from its main competitor, CNBC.

At a media summit hosted by BusinessWeek magazine, Rupert Murdoch was quoted as saying CNBC was too "negative towards business". They promised to make Fox Business more "business friendly".[9] In addition, it was expected that Fox Business would not be "poaching" a lot of CNBC's on-air talent in the immediate future, as most key on-air personalities had been locked into a long-term contract. However, that still left open the possibility of the network taking some of CNBC's other staff, including editors, producers and other reporters.[10] News Corporation, the former parent company of Fox Business and Fox News Channel (until all of Fox's film and most of its television properties were spun off into 21st Century Fox in June 2013), made a successful bid for Dow Jones, owner of the Wall Street Journal. However, CNBC stated on air that it had a contract with Dow Jones until 2012. One potential issue down the road is the fact that CNBC operates several news bureaus under the same roof as the Wall Street Journal.

Dave Ramsey had a one-hour prime time show, similar in format to his syndicated radio show, until June 2010.[17] Tom Sullivan broadcast his Tom Sullivan Show on the radio, with plans to syndicate the show nationwide with the assistance of Fox News Radio. Adam Shapiro (formerly with Cleveland's WEWS-TV and New York City's WNBC) was added to the Fox Business Network to report from the Washington, D.C. bureau. On October 18, 2007, former CNBC anchor Liz Claman joined the Fox Business Network as co-anchor of the 2-3 p.m. portion of the dayside business news block with David Asman. Her first assignment for FBN was an interview with Warren Buffett.

In April 2008, Brian Sullivan (no relation to Tom) joined the Fox Business Network, coming over from Bloomberg Television. Sullivan, who reunited with his Bloomberg colleague Connell McShane, anchored the 10 a.m.-12 p.m. portion of the business news block with Dagen McDowell.

In September 2009, Don Imus and FBN reached an agreement to carry his show, Imus in the Morning, on Fox Business. The show began airing on October 5, 2009.[18] Fox had previously been in negotiations with Imus to bring his show to the network. In November 2007 (when Imus was just returning to radio, and Fox Business was just starting), negotiations fell through and Imus instead signed with rural-oriented cable network RFD-TV.

On December 23, 2009, Alexis Glick left FBN. Announcing that that day's episode of The Opening Bell would be her last, she said “I know this is not the norm, but I don’t believe in abrupt departures.”[19] The only reason given by Glick for her departure was that she was leaving to "embark on a new venture,"[20] but a number of sources have noted that Don Imus' new morning show had a significant effect upon Glick's screen time since he signed with the network.[21]

Maria Bartiromo, formerly of CNBC, joined the Fox Business Network as anchor in February 2014. She is reunited with Liz Claman, Melissa Francis and Charles Gasparino, all 3 of whom worked with Bartiromo during her 20-year tenure at CNBC.

On January 4, 2008, the New York Times, and several other media outlets that day, reported that FBN had registered an average of 6,300 viewers, far below Nielsen's 35,000-viewer threshold. The number was so low that neither Nielsen nor FBN were allowed to confirm the number.[22] The Times and other media outlets noted the network is less than four months old and only in one-third as many households as is CNBC.

In July 2008, Nielsen estimated that FBN averaged 8,000 viewers per daytime hour and 20,000 per prime time hour, compared to 284,000 and 191,000 (respectively) for CNBC. Because FBN's viewership remained low, Nielsen had difficulty estimating viewership, and the estimates are not statistically significant. At the time, FBN was available in approximately 40 million homes to CNBC's over 90 million.[23]

As of fall 2008, FBN was losing to CNBC in the ratings by over 10 to 1.[24][25]

The latest numbers available, from June 2009, showed FBN with an average of 21,000 viewers between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m., still under the Nielsen threshold, and less than 10% of CNBC's 232,000 for the same time span. At this point, FBN was available in about 49 million U.S. homes.[26]

Reports of ratings from the first episode of Imus in the Morning reported an average of 177,000 viewers (and a peak of 202,000 in the 7:00 a.m. hour) in the time slot, mostly over the age of 65; this was a more than tenfold increase compared to the network's previous morning show, Money for Breakfast. The program even beat CNBC's Squawk Box in the time slot.[27]

The channel is broadcast to Australia overnight via the Sky News Business Channel.[32][33] Other countries possible in the future include United Kingdom, although the channel's reports are aired on 21st Century Fox's Sky News in the UK,[34] Canada[35] and Italy,[36] although negotiations are still on-going with cable and satellite providers. As of July 2011, the channel is carried on Sky Italia, its first European carriage deal.

Anheuser-Busch and Merrill Lynch were included in the original index, but each was acquired by other companies in 2008. They were replaced by Wells Fargo and HP.[39] This index is not available to purchase in the form of an index fund or ETF. The fund received criticism from some financial bloggers for putting together an index with so many competing brands (such as FedEx and UPS; McDonalds and Yum! Brands; WalMart, Target and Costco; Apple, Dell and Microsoft; and Coca-Cola and PepsiCo).[40]

^In an 10 October 2007 article in Daily Variety, it was reported that Fiorina had signed with Fox Business Network to become a frequent business commentator on the newly formed cable network, intended to be a competitor to the CNBC cable network. Michael Learmonth (2007-10-10). "Fox cabler signs Fiorina". Daily Variety. p. 4.